PORT CLINTON - A Gypsum man who served in World War II and died in 1942 is finally coming home.

John Kovach will be buried Monday with full military honors at Riverview Cemetery.

A funeral service honoring Kovach is scheduled to start at 10 a.m. at Bataan Elementary School.

His only remaining immediate family, sisters Mary Ocheske, 90, and Ethel Smith, 86, told The News-Messenger they were overwhelmed when they found out "Johnny" was coming home.

"It is so wonderful that my brother is going to get all this honor," Ocheske said.

Kovach was one of 32 men in the Company C 192nd Tank Battalion from Port Clinton who fought in the Battle of Bataan in the Philippines.

Along with members of his battalion and thousands of other soldiers, Kovach was taken prisoner of war after the United States surrendered the Bataan Peninsula to the Japanese on the island of Luzon on April 9, 1942.

After the surrender, Kovach and his comrades were among the 75,000 Filipino and American soldiers who were forced to march 65 miles to a Japanese prison camp. The trek became known as the Bataan Death March, with thousands dying.

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John Kovach was among 75,000 Filipino and American soldiers forced to march 65 miles to a Japanese prison camp.
He died in 1942 and will be buried Monday in Port Clinton with full military honors.(Photo: Molly Corfman/The News-Messenger, Molly Corfman/The News-Messenger)

Kovach died from dysentery in November 1942, Ocheske said. He was 20 years old.

According to prison records, Kovach was buried along with 13 fellow prisoners in a local camp cemetery in Cabanatuan, Grave 717.

Following the war, American Graves Registration Service (AGRS) personnel exhumed those buried at the Cabanatuan cemetery and relocated the remains to a temporary U.S. military cemetery near Manila.

In 2014, the Secretary of the Army granted permission to exhume ten graves associated with the Cabanatuan Common Grave 717. On August 28, 2014, the remains were sent to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) laboratory for identification.

To identify Kovach’s remains, scientists from DPAA and the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial (mtDNA) DNA analysis, which matched two sisters, as well as circumstantial evidence, dental comparisons, and anthropological analysis, which matched his records.

There will be a funeral procession Monday for Kovach from Bataan Elementary School to Riverview Cemetery following the service, according to Sara Toris, director of the Ottawa County Veterans Service Office.